Concerns Regarding Data Collection Timing and Insufficient Follow-up in a Study Investigating the Affective Component of Chronic Pain

摘要

1 published in Neurosurgery in June 2014 with great interest. The paper describes the placement of deep brain stimulation electrodes in the anterior cingulate cortex of 16 patients for the treatment of chronic pain. The authors should be complimented on providing individual patient data for readers to analyze. My concern here is with the timing of the data collection and the submission of this paper. Eight patients (E, H, J, K, L, M, N, O) had their data analyzed in November 2013 and 1 (P) had the electrode placed at that time with subsequent analysis 1 month later. This paper was submitted on September 17, 2013. I would like to know why the authors and reviewers thought it necessary to reanalyze more than half the patients after the paper was submitted. What did the data look like back in September that led the authors to conclude that the results of this study were significant? Additionally, how did the addition of patient P, who clearly was operated on after the paper was submitted, had no long-term follow-up and, in my opinion, was not even out of the postoperative period, alter the statistical outcome?1.Boccard SG, Fitzgerald JJ, Pereira EA, et al. Targeting the affective component of chronic pain: a case series of deep brain stimulation of the anterior cingulate cortex. Neurosurgery. 2014;74(6):628–637. ? 2014 by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Topic:.